What is the Difference between Hinduism and Buddhism?
To the outsider, it may often appear that there is no real difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, particularly if one takes into account only the more philosophical, monistic form of Hinduism. Both seem to advocate the dissolving of oneself into a larger universal whole, and both seem to resort to the same ideas of karma and reincarnation as the fate of anyone who has not yet attained the final goal. In fact, if one looks at both religions through squinted eyelids so that all the finer distinctions are blurred, that observation is not far from the truth at all. Let me develop the similarities a little bit more. In the process some of the differences will already begin to emerge, and then I will close by highlighting the distinctions. First off, one needs to understand that Buddhism originally emerged within the context of Hinduism as a school of Hinduism, albeit a heretical one right from the start. Hinduism had been brought into India around 1500 B.C. through the migration of the A
